December. 1909. 



American Hee JoarnaTI 



clover as pasture. I work with the 

 clipped-queen system. I found one 

 swarm on the ground one morning not 

 20 feet from an apple-tree. They were 

 black bees with a queen that could fly, 

 so I knew that they were not mine. We 

 hope for better luck next year. 



Orville F. Frye. 

 DodgeviUe, Wis., Sept. 7, 1909. 



The Illinois State Couveution 



We attended this convention at 

 Springfield. Nov. 18 and 19. The at- 

 tendance was good, and it was perhaps 

 the best meeting ever held by the Illi- 

 nois State Bee-Keepers' Convention. A 

 full shorthand report of the proceed- 

 ings was taken, which will be published 

 in pamphlet form later on, and an- 

 nounced in these columns when ready 

 for distribution. 



The following were elected as offi- 

 cers for the ensuing year: 



President— C. P. Dadant, Hamilton, 



Ill- 

 Vice-Presidents— 1st, Aaron Coppin ; 



2d, J W. Bowen ; 3d, Louis Werner ; 



4th, W. B. Moore ; 5th. I. E. Pyles. 



Secretary— Jas. A. Stone, Route 4, 

 Springfield. 



Treasurer— Chas. Becker, Pleasant 



Plains. . 



Foul Brood Inspector— A. L. Kildow, 



Putnam, 111. 



■•- 



Book Notices 



This is a column begun last month 

 in which will be noticed some of the 

 best books of the day. This will be a 

 help to our readers, for many who wish 

 to place before their families and 

 others good books, do not know what 

 to select, .\nything we notice in our 

 book column can be relied upon as 

 being just as represented. And we 

 would be glad to fill orders for those 

 we describe, either alone or clubbed 

 with the American Bee Journal, as we 

 state in the paragraph following the 

 notices. Also any books we do not 

 mention we will be glad to order for 

 our readers, if they will write us or re- 

 mit to us for them. 



December Number a Little Late 



Owing to the Chicago-Xorthwestern 

 coming the first days of this month, 

 and also on account of this December 

 issue of the American Bee Journal be- 

 ing a 48-page number, it is a few days 

 later than usual. We aim to mail the 

 Bee Journal between the 10th and the 

 loth of each month. If at any time a 

 subscriber does not receive it before 

 the 18th or 20th it has likely been lost 

 in the mails, and another copy should 

 be asked for t/ie;i, and not wait several 

 months, as we may be out of the de- 

 sired copv if not written for promptly. 



Alfalfar— the Great Honey-Plant 



Farmers' Bulletin No. :i:i9, issued by 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, is devoted wholly 

 to a consideration of alfalfa. Its de- 

 scription is given as follows: 



The accompanyinK illustration indicates 

 the Kcneral appearance of tiie plant. It may 

 briefly be described as luint'a deep-rooted. 



ions-lived tierbaceous forage plant belong- 

 ing to tlie botanical family Leguminoss. or 

 pod-bearing plants. Its flowers are violet, 

 clover-shaped, and borne in compact oblong 

 racemes or clusters. The pods are small. 



tending 15 or more feet into the soil. This 

 enables the plant to reach stores of plant 

 food in the soil which cannot be secured by 

 the ordinary shallow-rooted field crops. 

 The long taproot is also of great importance 

 in sections of limited rainfall, as by tliis 

 means the plant is enabled to withstand ex- 

 tremes of drouth which would otherwise be 

 fatal. 



The value of alfalfa for bees is briefly 

 mentioned in this paragraph : 



The development of the honey-producing 

 industry in the West has been practically 

 coincident with the extension of alfalfa cul- 

 ture. Statistics indicate that the heaviest 

 yields of honey per colony of bees are gotten 

 in the sections showing the greatest acreage 

 of alfalfa. That the honey is of a good qual- 

 ity is evidenced by its standing in exhibi- 

 tions of this class of products. The number 

 of times that the alfalfa fields come into 

 blossom during the season makes possible 

 the gathering of successive crops of honey. 



Ai.FAt.FA— Showing Long Roots. 



slightly hairy, and spirally coiled in two or 

 three turns. The kidney-shaped seeds arc 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long, and sev- 

 eral are contained in each pod. 



One of the most important characteris- 

 tics of alfal'a is its long taproot, often ex- 



Oiir Front-Page Pictures 



The following are the brief descrip- 

 tions of the front-page pictures of api- 

 aries : 



No. 1. — Apiary of C. E. Eccleston 



This apiary is located inlGreene. N. Y., 

 and contains ^r colonies. 



No. 2.— Apiary of S. A. Pecit 



I am enclosing a photograph of my bee-yard 

 and honey-house taken after tfie supers 

 were all off but one, andsome of them alloff. 

 I " weighed up " a few days ago, and have 

 only one hive in my yard that weighs 50 

 pounds, and many of them under 30, My 

 banner colony that stored about 120 pounds, 

 weighs only about HO pounds. We have had 

 the poorest year since I commenced, in IQ02. 



The picture was taken about Sept. i, iqoq, 

 after the supers were nearly all off. 



S. A. Peck. 



.\oi thumberland. I'a.. Oct, 8, 



No. 3. — Apiary of Clias. D. Doan 



I am sending a !)icture of m>- bee-yard 

 which consists of 37 colonies at present: 27 

 spring count, I am in the center, and my 

 daughter is in the foreground with the 

 smoker fighting a bee that is buzzing around 

 her. 



The forepart of the season was not very 

 good for honey—no No, i white of any ac- 

 count, but the fall flow was better. My bees 

 averaged a little over Ho pounds per colony, 

 spring count. 



The building you see in the distance is the 

 Hull Butter Factory, ho rods north. 



linll. Iiiwa,. Sept. j::. Ch.\s, D. Doan. 



No. 4. — Apiary of Leroy Lloyd 



I am sending a view of my Steuben County 

 apiary of 1.37 cohinies, mostly in home-made 

 8-frame chaff hives. This year has been the 

 most utter and complete failure I ever saw 

 for bees, andall kinds of farming, too. About 

 Aug. I to 10. I saw something I had never seen 

 before. The thermometer at noon stood 

 from 85 to Qo in the shade, and in my whole 

 yard of bees you would have to look sharp 

 to see a bee flying, on account of the terrible 

 drouth drying all the nectar up, when us- 

 ually the flow is at its best from clover and 

 buckwheat, Lekoy Li.ovp, 



Rathbone. N, Y,, Oct. 15. 



No. 5 Apiary of J. E. Lutts 



I am sending you 2 photographs, one show- 

 ing a bee-tr(*e that I found up ak>ng the 

 mountain side, from which I took out luo 

 pounds of fine honey. One thing peculiar I 

 noticed, tin: hole where the bees went in 

 and out was not more than half an inch in 

 diameter. The hollow was about 3 feet long 

 by 16 inches across. The tree was a monster 

 elm, nearly 4 feet through the base. 



The other iihotograph [No. s) shows my 4 

 colonies of bees which I keep in the rear of 

 a city lot. Two of the colonies have stored 

 175 [lounds of honey. I see no reason why 

 people living in the city cannot keep bees, 

 and have all the honey they want to eat, and 

 some to sell. I winter them outside. I put 

 a box over them 4 inches larger than the 

 hive, and stuff the space with dry maple 

 leaves, and cover over the top waterproof, 

 leaving a space in front for the bees to pass 

 out when the weather is warm enough for 



